The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-13

anxious that minister of the gospel shall
come in the line of apostolic succession, not
caring so much whether he come from Apostle
Paul or Apostle Judas. They have way of
measuring gnat until it is larger than a
camel.
Again. my subject photographs all those
who are abhorrent of small sins while they
are reckless in regard to magnificent thefts.
You will lind many merchant who while he
is so careful that he would not take q yard of
cloth or q spool of cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who if a bank
cashier should make a mistake and send in a
roll of bills five dollars too much would dis
patch a messenger in hot haste to return the
surplus, yet who will go into a stock company
in which after while gets control of the stock
and then waters the stock and makes one hun
dred thousand dollars appear like two hundred
thousand dollers. He only stole one hundred
thousand dollars by the operation. Many of
the men of fortune made their wealth in that
way. One of those men, engaged in such un-
righteous acts, that evening, the evening of
the very day he watered the stock, will find a
wharf-rat stealing newspaper from the base
ment doorway, and will go out sand catch
the urchin by the collar, and twist the collar
so tightly the poor fellow cannot say that it
was thirst for knowledge that led him to the
dishonest act, but grip the collar tighter and
tighter, saying, 81 have been looking for you q
long while; you stole my paper four or five
times, haven't you? you miserable wretch"
and then the old stock gambler, with q voice
Oley Cdll near llfoG plOCkS, VIII cry out, 10
lice! police!'' That same man, the evening
of the day in which he watered the
stock, will kneel with his fam
lily in prayers and thank God for the pros
perity of the day, then kiss his children good
night with an air which seems to say, 81
nope yon will all grow up to be as good as your
Tather" Prisons for sins insectile in size, but
palaces for crimes dromedarian. No mercy
for sins animalcule in proportion, but great
leniency for mastodon iniquity A poor boy
slyly takes from the basket of market woman
choke pear--saving some one else from the
cholera-and you smother him in the horrible
atmosphere of Raymond Street Jail or New
York tombs, while his cousin, who has been
skillful enough to steal fifty thousand dollars
from the city, you will make him a candidate
for the New York Legislature.
There is great deal of uneasiness and ner-
vousness now among some people in our time
who have gotten unrighteous fortunes, a great
deal OF nervousness about dynamite. / tell
them that God will put under their UPRIGHT
eous fortunes something more explosive than
indignation. 1t is time that we learn in Amer
lea that sin is not eXcuSable in proportion as it
declares large dividends, and has outriders in
equipage. Many man is riding to perdition,
position ahead and lackey behind. To steal
one copy of a newspaper is q gnat; to steal
many thousands of dollars is q camel There
is many fruit dealer who would not consent
to steal basket of peaches from o neigh
boris stall, but who would not scruple to de-
press the fruit market; and as long as / can
remember we have heard every summer the
peach crop of Maryland is a failure, and by the
time the crop comes in the Misrepresentation
makes a difference of millions of dollars.
Ae.oh man hoy who would would not steal one
peach baskets. Go down in the summer time
into the mercantile library, in the reading
rooms, and see the newspaper reports.of the
crops from all parts of the country, and their
phraseology is very much the same, and the
same men wrote them, methodically and infa-
mously carrying out tho huge lying about the
grain crop from year to year and for score of
years. After while there will be corner
in the wheat market and men who had con-
tempt for q petty theft will burglarize the
wheat bin of a nation and commit larceny up
ON the American corn-crib. And some of the
men will sit in churches and in reformatory in
stitutions trying to stain out the small gnats
OF scoundrelism, While iii their grain elevators
and their storehuuses they are fattenirg huge
camels which they expect after a while to
swallow. Society has ito be entirely recon-
strueted on this subject. We are to find that
sin is inexcusable in proportion as it is
great.
know in our time the tendency is to charge
religious frauds upon good men. They say,
"Oh, what class of frauds you have in the
church of God in this day, and when an elder
OF a church, or deacon, or minister of the
gospel, or superintendent of a Sabbath
heads there are in many of the newspapers.
Great primer type. Five line plea. "Anoth-
er Saint Absconded," "Clerical Scoundrel-
ISM" Religion at discount" "Shame on the
Churches" while there are a thousand scoun-
drels outside the church to where there is one
inside the church, and the misbehavior of
those who never see the inside of a church is
so great it is enough to tempt man to become
Christian to get out of their company But
in all circles, religious and irrelgious, the ten
don 10 Gin 49,. 81,
mammoth. Even John Milton in his para
disc Lost" while he condemns Satan, gives
such grand description OF him you have hard
work to suppress your admiration. Oh, this
straining out of small sins like gnats, and this
gulping down great iniquites like camels
This subject does not give the picture of one
or two persons, but is a gallery in which thous-
ands OF people may see their likeness. For in
stance, all those people who, while they would
not rob their neighbor of farthing appropri-
ate the money and the treasure of the public.
A man has house to sell, and he tells his Gus
toner it is worth twenty thousand dollars.
Next day the assessor comes around, the own
er says it is worth fifteen thousand dollars.
The government of the United States took off
the tax from personal income, among other
reasons because so few people would tell the
truth and many man with an income Of
hundreds of dollars a day, made statements
which seemed to imply he was about to be
handed over to the oyerseer of the poor. Care
York, yet smuggling in their Saratoga trunk
ten silk dresses from Paris and a half dozen
watches from Geneva, Switzerland telling the
customhouse officer on the wharf, There is
nothing in that trunk but wearing apparel"
and putting five dollar gold-piece in his hand
to punctuate the statement.
Described in the text are all those who are
particular never to break the law of grammar,
and who want all their language an elegant
specimen of syntax, straining out all the mac
cGraces of speech with fine sieve Of literary
criticism, while through their conversation 70
Islander and innuendo, and profanity and false
hood larger than whole caravan of cameIs,
when they might better fracture every law Of
the language and shock intellectual taste, and
better let every verb seek in vain for its
nomnative, and every noun for its govern
ment, and every proposition lose its way in the
sentence, and adjectives and partciples and
pronouns get into grand riot worthy Of the
fourth ward on election day, than to commit
q moral inaccuracy. Better swallow a thou
sand gnats than one camel.
Such persons are also described in tho text
who are very much alarmed about the small
faults Of Others and have no alarm about their
own great transgressions. There are in every
community and in every church watch dogs who
feel called upon to keep their eyes on others
and growl. They are full Of suspicious. They
wonder il that man is not dishonest, II that
man is not unclean, II there is not something